Martini.

“I’m stuffed. I had a jar of olives.”
Roger Stirling - Mad Men

James Bond is the quintessential male role model here in the UK. I was born in 1968 and as a small boy was led to believe that Bond was everything a man is supposed to be. Well almost – Mum would sigh and role her eyes at him sometimes.

Then as you get older you sort of start to think, ‘oh, that wasn’t cool' or at least 'not sure about that'. But the biggest blow to the belief that Bond is the ultimate arbiter of taste and sophistication is when you discover that his famous vodka Martini – shaken not stirred – is just wrong.

Saying it’s wrong might be an overstatement, however, as the more you research the Martini, the more you realise that there isn’t really a definitive. 

A Martini is basically very cold hard liquor designed to give you a jolt of alcohol and get you smashed. It was a prohibition favourite, as high quality gin was precious, so the last thing you would want to do is water it down. Hence it being traditionally served straight up, without ice. The ratio of gin to vermouth varies enormously, essentially to the drinkers choice.

The playwright Noël Coward famously ignored vermouth and would instead fill the glass with gin and wave it in the direction of Italy. The garnish would often change according to the drinker's preference, but the lemon twist or olive seem to be the consistent choice.

Today, the drinks world has gone a little Martini-mad, applying the whole word ‘Martini' or the suffix ‘tini' to almost any concoction e.g. Peachtini, Espresso Martini, Saketini. The Obsessive always looks for the authentic original version, however, and the classic 1922 recipe feels right, with a gin-to-vermouth ratio of 2:1 and the simple addition of a lemon twist or olive.

Recipe:

Remove tall stemmed cocktail glass from freezer
Place plenty of ice in cocktail shaker
Add 2 measures of London Dry Gin
Add 1 measure of dry or extra dry vermouth
Stir vigorously for 30-40 seconds
Strain liquid into glass leaving ice in shaker
Broad strip of lemon peel twisted over the drink then placed in the drink or one olive on cocktail stick

(We used a dried lemon slice helps reduce food wastage)

Enjoy.